"I Believe You Have My Stapler?"

Hello all!

My apologies for the long wait. But lots has happened since the last post. First of all, I got a job! It is my first time into the culture of the office.

So, I have watched "The Office" since the beginning but nothing could have prepared for the life of working in an office. I have been conditioned to factory/warehouse life for so long that its hard to adjust to office life.

Let me explain - in factories and warehouses you have the same break and lunch everyday. There is no flexibility in this whatsoever. In an office, I can take a break whenever I want and lunch whenever I want. So weird.

And then there is the whole concept of always being busy. I had to curb my all consuming fear that my supervisor would walk by and "catch" me talking to somebody for 1 minute. In one factory I worked at, you could not talk or listen to the radio. It was like boot camp. So, now I can relax and talk for a bit with my co-workers and not worry that I will get my head cut off if I do.

And finally, another big difference is the lack of a broom in my hand. Whenever I had nothing really to do, the rule of thumb was to pick up a broom and sweep. Perhaps the cleaner in the office might appreciate me not curbing that tendency.

I am sure I will have more stories about working in an office but for now, this is my intro to the office culture.

Question - I will give you an invisible handshake if you can tell me where that quote is from for my blog title.

Always Look Before Crossing

Hello All!

So, as most of you know, I have recently returned to Ontario from Alberta. The transition has come fairly naturally except for one event that should be as natural as showering.

Crossing the road.

As far back as I can remember, I can remember being told "always look before crossing the street!" And I did all the time. When I was crossing the street I would make sure those turning right were stopping or those turning left saw me crossing.

But I was a wee bit spoiled in the land of Alberta. You see, in Alberta, one merely needs to stand at the edge of a road and the cars will stop for the pedestrians. This happened on time for me when I was not even at a crosswalk.

But if there are white lines on the road indicating a pedestrian crosswalk, those cars will stop without any hesitation. When I first arrived in Edmonton, I was hesitant to cross without using any form of lighting signal. But when I was at a crosswalk, a fella who was approaching the crosswalk barely slowed his pace before stepping out onto the road. But sure enough, the cars stopped creating a Red Sea effect on a busy Edmonton road. I scurried on through behind him before the cars smelled my Ontario blood.

So, alas, here I am back in Ontario and having had that pedestrian power for so long, it is difficult to give back my power to the cars in Toronto. I have to remember to always watch the cars and make sure they will indeed stop for me. There is no longer a luxury of expecting cars to stop but merely attempting to dodge them and avoid getting honked at.

It makes me wonder why in Alberta, cars hold a certain amount of respect for the pedestrian while in Toronto, there is very little respect. Some might say that it ties in with busy, snobby stereotype while Alberta has old western values. Who knows.

But all I can say, is you best be careful when crossing those Toronto roads!

I say Angry Birds, you say...

Hello all!

I am now writing this back in lovely Ontario. My first day back, I made certain to make it to the lake and sit there for a bit with a friend! And it was glorious. Oh, how I have missed water.

Anyway, I recently purchased an iPod Touch and have been slowly figuring out all its features. This morning I discovered the Voice Control. Now, this is the oldest joke in the book ever since those automated voice services because they inevitably give you the opposite of what you want.

But, I was curious if it would open up games I had on my iTouch so in a clear voice, I said "An-gry Bi-rd-s". And the voice said back to me, "Playing Recovery". Which is an Eminem album. I laughed at that and said, yeah, I suppose Eminem is a bit of an angry bird.

It makes me wonder how they program that voice control. Like if I said Jesus, I wonder which worship artist it would go to. Curious investigations that I might just partake in this week.

Hope you all are doing well!